"Honey Girl!" he cried.
"Billy Bounce!" exclaimed she, and her voice was as full of gladness as Billy's.
"You on the throne?"
"Yes, my aunt the Queen Bee felt that she was growing old, and to protect me further from Nickel Plate and Bogie Man abdicated and made me Queen."
"You need not have feared them," said Billy. "Allow me to present Bogie Man."
"That, Bogie Man?" said the Princess, or rather the Queen, in surprise. "Surely you are mistaken. Why, Bogie Man is a monster."
"Yes, oh Queen," said Bogie Man, humbly, "I used to was. Everybody thought I was a terrible fellow, but now that Billy Bounce has discovered me I'm a broken old man who wouldn't hurt a fly unless it woke me too early in the morning."
"Brave Billy Bounce," whispered Honey Girl.
"What he says is true," said Billy, and then added modestly, "but I am not brave, I just somehow guessed that bad things and the unseen things that people fear are mostly nothing at all when a fellow faces them."
"But few face them as you have done, Billy Bounce, and—" began the Queen, when suddenly a great uproar broke out in the palace. In rushed General Merchandise followed by the Yellow Jacket Guard. Close on their heels came a company of Borer Bees carrying their ground augers at charge bayonets. Then came a brigade of Fighting Ants, their black armor shining in the light; next the fierce Wasp Grenadiers, the tallest soldiers in the army, looking very trim and military with their thin waists and broad shoulders; then in came the Horse Fly Cavalry followed by the Tumble Bug Artillery, each soldier rolling his own cannon ball. And such a fierce buzz as arose from their ranks—officers buzzing orders, orderlies and aides running and riding back and forth. Indeed, had not the Palace been enormous, I can't imagine how it would have held the army and its noise.